HYDERABAD: If about six tourists visit the 900-year-old Golconda fort in the city here, only one among them visits the historical Qutb Shahi Tombs, a stone’s throw away. So say the statistics.
While Golconda fort enjoys a celebrated status, the nearby Qutb Shahi Tombs of rulers from the same dynasty that ruled the region for 170 years have been lying in neglect, and what better indicator for this than the tourist footfall data.
Going by the data available with the Telangana tourism, as many as 16,30,442 tourists, including 20,341 foreign nationals, visited the Golconda Fort in 2014, and only 2,70,011 tourists have visited the Qutb Shahi tombs, barely 1.6 kms away, over the same period. Statistics also show that there is a marginal increase in the footfall at these monuments every year.
This disparity in the footfall, many believe, is a result of the lack of coordination between the two archaeological bodies- the State department of Archaeology and Museums(DAM) and the Archaeological Survey of India(ASI) and the result of years of indifference shown towards the ‘Seven Tombs’.
Though there were talks of adding several heritage sites that belong to the State Department of Archaeology and Museums into the ASI’s list of protected sites, BP Acharya, principal secretary, Tourism, recently clarified in the negative.
Recently, the Aga Khan Trust for Culture (AKTC) established a site museum cum interpretation centre that educates tourists about the Qutb Shahi dynasty. A tourist is charged `10 at both the Golconda fort as well as the Seven Tombs.
“At Golconda there is no proper information available about the tombs. People do not understand that visiting Golconda is incomplete without a visit to the tombs,” said Anuradha Reddy, convener, The Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH.).
According to her, the two entities that manage these two sites should complement each other and give tourists the complete Qutb Shahi experience.
Explaining the situation, a senior official of the State Department of Archaeology and Museums, said, “Obviously, not many people know about the importance of the seven tombs. We are trying to popularise it by distributing some pamphlets outside the fort and also enhancing the signages around.”
Qutb Shahi tombs, according to the experts of AKTC who are now in the process of restoring the tombs, is one of its kind necropolis densely comprising gardens, parks, mosques and wells. As many as 72 monuments exist in a campus of 108 acres Qutb Shahi Heritage Park.
The experts of AKTC believe that the heritage park after the completion of the conservation and restoration activities, which is expected to take around 10 years, would be transformed into a major international heritage attraction.